peter roberts, Savannah, Georgia

Raised by semi-alcoholic wolves in the tony suburb of Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, CT, Peter E. Roberts grew up amidst impromptu gatherings of neighbors, extended family and cronies from the Manhattan commuter train. The ribald, oft-repeated stories from those gatherings led to an early appeal of potentially explosive social situations. Exposure to a great aunt’s personal cache of 1930s Mardi Gras Krewe invitations cemented a lurid fascination of how the celebrated night began, why it ended and who were the guests that may have behaved “badly”. This innate love of storytelling led to a BFA in Video from Savannah College of Art and Design and over a decade in television advertising and production. Concurrently producing invitations and various paperama led to several GraphicDesignUSA Awards. His fine art exhibitions of narrative layering by 2 dimensional papercuts led to his current position as Gallery Director of Location Gallery’s two locations in Savannah.

SixTwelve was proud to present the work of Peter E. Roberts’ show, "HEADCASES (OK!)," in the SixTwelve Gallery at Tower Theatre, May 2018. His work portrayed iconic Oklahomans who were leaders in innovation, industry, music, art, sports and more with his mixed media, graphic paper cut assemblages in an appreciative style. Earlier in the year, Peter travelled to OKC to work with children in our Spring Break Urban Farm and Creativity Camp and his projects were a hit! He returned for part two of his residency the first week of May and the opening of this exhibit took place at SixTwelve Friday, May 4th.

Peter not only traveled to OKC for his residency, he also provided a reciprocal gallery space in Savannah for Oklahoma City artist, Amanda Zoey to show her work during her residency in 2017. This kind of exchange has helped to establish a creative bridge, the continual flow of generosity and opportunity, back and forth between Oklahoma City and Savannah, GA and acts as an example of the type of exchanges that could take place all over the country when the residency exchange program is fleshed out over the next ten years.